Lay guide



C. D. BROWN April 24', 1934- LAY GUIDE Filed 001:. 10, 1953 INVENTOR.CAEL D. BEOW/v. m %W ATTORNEY.

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Patented Apr. 24, 1934 LAY GUIDE Carl D. Brown, Hcpedale, Mass, assignorto raper Ccrporation, Hopedale, Mass., a corporation of MaineApplication October 10, 1933, Serial No. 692,933

3 Claims.

The present invention pertains to looms and has more particularreference to means for guiding the reciprocating lay.

It is usual practice to mount the lay of looms, iof the type hereininvolved, on the upper ends of pivotally mounted lay swords and to swingthe lay forwardly and rearwardly about the pivotal axis of such swords.It is of utmost importance that the lay not have any movement laterally.of its intended path, and experience has shown that such lateralmovement cannot be effectively prevented unless the lay structure ispositively guided adjacent the lay. Devices for guiding the lay in themanner indicated have heretofore been I devised, reference being had,for example, to

Patent No. 775,558, issued Nov. 22, 1904 to W. F. Draper. Such priordevices have been unsatisfactory in that, due to inaccuracies in theloom construction, the guiding means was not always parallel to or inproper position relative to the path of movement of the lay and layswords.

It is the principal object of my invention to provide a lay guidingmeans which shall be adjustable in a manner to permit the same toaccurately and efficiently guide the lay in its movements.

The preferred embodiment of my invention is illustrated on theaccompanying drawing, of which:

Fig. 1 is a sectional elevation, looking outward- 1y toward the righthand side of the loom;

Fig. 2 is a horizontal sectional View, taken approximately on line 2-2of Fig. 1; and

Fig. 3 is a detail, in perspective.

Referring to the drawing, I have fragmentarily illustrated only so muchof a loom as is necessary to a complete understanding of my invention.The parts shown include a right hand loom side 1 which is connected witha left hand loom side (not shown) as by a cross-girt 2 and breast beam3. The lay a is mounted, as usual, on lay swords of which only the righthand sword 5 is shown. The swords are pivoted at their lower ends on arocker shaft 6 which is mounted in bearings as '7 carried by the loomsides. The lay structure thus formed is reciprocated forwardly andrearwardly (the front of the loom being to the right in Fig. 1) bypitman 8.

Since the heavy lay is mounted a considerable distance from the rockershaft a very little lost motion in the rocker shaft bearings, or a veryslight twisting of the lay structure, can permit the lay to movelaterally of its proper path sufiiciently to impair the operation of the"loom. It will be apparent that, due to slight variations in theposition of the rocker shaft bearings the path of the lay may not beexactly parallel to the loom side. The lay guide of my invention isconstructed to prevent the aforementioned lateral movement of the layeven though the path of the latter be out of parallelism with the loomside.

The lay guide herein disclosed is comprised essentially of two elementshaving relative sliding movement, one such element being fixed to theloom side and the other being fixed to the contiguous lay sword, and theelements being readily adjustable in a manner to be set forth. The fixedelement mentioned is comprised of a fiat guide bar 9 which is fixed tothe loom side 1 adjacent the lay sword 5. The guide bar is positioned ina substantially vertical plane but is capable of adjustment about avertical axis. In accomplishment of such adjustment, the rearward end ofthe guide bar is bolted, by bolt 10, against a curved face 11 formed ona lug 12. The lug is conveniently formed separately from the loom sideand secured thereto as by bolt 13.

The forward end of the guide bar 9 is apertured to loosely receive abolt 14 which is fixed in the loom side by a nut 15. Nuts 16, 16 on thebolt serve to rigidly hold the guide bar on the bolt. By loosening thebolt 10 the nuts 16, 16 may be employed to swing the forward end of theguide bar, about a vertical axis, into parallelism with the path of thelay sword 5.

The second element of the lay guide, in the present embodiment, iscomprised of a yoke 17 shaped to fit the lay sword, and two separatepieces 18 and 19 in the form of plates positioned on the opposite sideof the sword from the yoke 17. A bolt 20 passes through the yoke andthrough elongated slots 21 and 22 formed, re-

' spectively, in the piece 18 and 19. A bolt 23 passes through the yokeand through similar elongated slots 24 and 25 on the opposite side ofthe sword. The piece 18 has an upwardly extending finger on which isformed a surface 26 which slidably engages the outer vertical side ofthe guide bar 9, and the piece 19 has a similarly formed but opposedsurface 27 which slidably engages the inner vertical side of the guidebar.

The construction just described permits the pieces 18 and 19 to beadjusted together, laterally of the path of movement of the lay sword,and also permits them to be adjusted independently, to conform to thethickness of the guide bar and compensate for wear of the same. Furtheradvantages of the construction are self evident and require nodiscussion.

Having fully disclosed the preferred embodiment of my invention, Iclaim:

1. In a loom, the combination of a loom frame, lay and lay swords with alay guide comprised of a guide element carried by said frame adjacentone of the lay swords, separate pieces having surfaces engagingrespectively with opposed surfaces on said guide element, and meanssecuring said pieces to said lay sword for separate, independentadjustment laterally of the path of movement of the lay.

2. In a loom, the combination of a loom frame, lay and lay swords with alay guide comprised of a guide element carried by said frame adjacentone of the lay swords, a pair of separate plates each of which isprovided with a guide finger, which fingers engage respectively withopposite sides of said guide element, a yoke on said lay sword, andclamping bolts passing through said yoke and through horizontal slots ineach of said plates for clamping said plates and yokes to thelay sword,the said slots permitting separate, independent adjustment of saidplates, and fingers, laterally of the path of movement of the lay.

3. In a loom, the combination of a loom frame, lay and lay swords with alay guide comprised of a guide bar positioned adjacent one of the layswords, means on the loom frame for adjusting said guide bar about avertical axis into parallelism with the path of movement of said laysword and for holding the guide bar in adjusted position, separatepieces having surfaces engaging respectively with opposite sides of saidguide bar, and means securing said pieces to said lay sword forseparate, independent adjustment laterally of the path of movement ofthe lay.

CARL D. BROWN.

